Whether or not its grey out, there is nothing like a burst of colour to brighten one’s day and today’s maker has it running through her creative DNA. Jeweller Clare Lloyd is Colour Designs and guess what?! She loves colour. To find out what else she likes, read on…
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| Colour Dot Stacking Rings in a range of shades by Colour Designs, £32 each |
Please can you introduce yourself and your work?
My name is Clare and I design and make a range of colourful jewellery using sterling silver, polymer and resin clay, under the name Colour Designs. I live in Frome and my studio is in an old converted mill in the centre of Frome alongside 20 other artists/makers.
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| Tiny disc necklace with sterling silver chain by Colour Designs, £80 |
What do you love most about working as a jeweller?
I’ve always loved jewellery so to be able to make it is a complete joy. What I love the most is that I can make my own colours and mix the clays like paint to create a never ending range. I’ve got a thing about colour and I use my materials to create dead flat matt colours and I love the way the soft flat colours contrast with the silver metal.
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| Interchangeable Colour Dot Trio Pendant by Colour Designs, £95 |
My current favourites are the stacking rings - I’ve been making some slightly larger square rings which are more of a challenge to make and involve some fiddly soldering but I like the contrast of the bigger squares with the little circles.
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| Modern Deco Necklace in sulphur and grey by Colour Designs, £65 |
What are some of your biggest creative influences or inspirations?
My biggest inspirations come from the natural world and the changing seasons but also from other artists and makers - particularly painters and ceramicists. Working in a studio surrounded by artists is brilliant because although our work and disciplines are very different, we often inspire each other with our colour combinations. I love the way that artists such as Kandinsky used colour and how he combined different colours together that just seem to work perfectly. There are also a lot of modern ceramicists such a Katie Lowe and Sue Pryke who make beautiful minimalist ceramics using flat matt colours which is wonderful.
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| Colour and light abound in Clare's studio at the Silk Mill in Frome |
My studio is quite tiny and stuffed full of things that I can’t live without such as a million paint charts and colour swatches galore as well as far too many plants. My studio is in the Silk Mill in Frome which is also home to lots of other artist/makers studios and so it’s lovely to have other creative people around me. My work space is often fairly cluttered and I’ve usually got lots of work on the go at the same time - other than the mess it’s colourful and I love it!
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| Sass-swatch: Clare's trusty companion is her extensive colour palettes |
I’m always jotting down ideas and notes for possible new designs and I’m forever collecting colour swatches or taking photos of colours that catch my eye. I try to keep my jewellery as wearable as possible so whenever I make a new design, I’ll make a sample and then I’ll wear it for a while to see how it behaves in the real world. Sometimes, I’ll ask a friend to road test a new design as it’s really important that each new design is practical and wearable and will stand up to daily wear. Sometimes new pieces work brilliantly in my head but are less useful in real life, so they might need a bit of tweaking before I unleash them into the big wide world.
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| Dotty about colour: Clare experiments and test runs her designs before finalising them |
There are quite a few challenges really, from trying to source materials and packaging that are as environmentally friendly as possible to giving myself something ridiculously small and fiddly to solder. I think when you’re running your own tiny business, you have to do every single part of it from the designing and making (the best bit) to all the marketing (the bit I like the least!) so there are numerous challenges that crop up!
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| Spots in front of your eyes: Colour combos in Clare's studio |
My most cherished handmade possessions are a little group of beautiful handmade plant pots made by Priormade and some gorgeous textile hanging plant pots by Ruby Cubes. I have quite a collection of them now in my studio and I’m pretty sure there will be more of them. I love cacti and succulents so have filled my studio with them and put them into lovely colourful handmade pots and hangers.
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| Clare obviously has a hammer... do you think she hammers in the morning? Or hammers in the evening? |
A good stomp around a field or escaping to the middle of the countryside or the sea always helps with creativity. There are so many glorious colours in the natural world to inspire me that it’s impossible to be in a creative rut for very long.
Where would you like to be in ten years?
I’d love to be living and working by the sea and making more and more colourful jewellery. It would also be lovely to learn some more skills and techniques and I’ve always wanted to try ceramics so that would be something I’d love to do.
You can also see Clare’s pieces featured in our first ever Made in Bristol Designer-Maker Gift Guide.
Photography thanks:
Products by Jo Hounsome Photography.
Other images courtesy of Clare Lloyd.
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